First Partial - American Pale Ale Target, Recipe Comments?

[Engibeer]

G'day All,

I'm planning to do my first partial over the weekend.

I have used BeerSmith 2 in an attempt to create a recipe based on ingredients I think I should be able to pick up from the LHBS, along with ingredients I already have - galaxy, crystal malt.

I would appreciate if anyone interested and willing could review my recipe and method below and provide comments on anything they believe could be improved with the process.

I'm not sure if the efficiency is reflected correctly considering the crystal will be first steeped?


Brewing Steps: Crystal Partial

American Pale Ale

Type: Partial Mash

Date: 14/11/2013

Batch Size (fermenter): 20.00 l

Brewer:

Boil Size: 16.29 l

Asst Brewer:

Boil Time: 60 min

Equipment: Pot ( 5 Gal/19 L) - Mini-BIAB

Final Bottling Volume: 19.17 l

Brewhouse Efficiency: 65.00

Fermentation: Ale, MG Keg Fridge

Taste Rating(out of 50): 30.0

Taste Notes:

Prepare for Brewing​

Create a yeast starter with 1.70 l of wort




Clean and Prepare Brewing Equipment



Total Water Needed: 25.54 l

Mash or Steep Grains​

Mash Ingredients

Amt

Name

Type

#

%/IBU

0.25 kg

Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (39.4 EBC)

Grain

1

7.7 %





Mash Steps

Name

Description

Step Temperature

Step Time

Mash In

Add 0.65 l of water at 75.7 C

68.9 C

45 min

Mash Out

Add 0.26 l of water at 94.7 C

75.6 C

10 min




Fly sparge with 15.63 l water at 75.6 C

Boil Wort​

Add water to achieve boil volume of 16.29 l



Estimated pre-boil gravity is 1.064 SG




Boil Ingredients

Amt

Name

Type

#

%/IBU

3.00 kg

Amber Liquid Extract (24.6 EBC)

Extract

2

92.3 %

30.00 g

Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min

Hop

3

16.8 IBUs

25.00 g

Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Boil 40.0 min

Hop

4

11.2 IBUs

15.00 g

Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Boil 20.0 min

Hop

5

7.9 IBUs








Estimated Post Boil Vol: 13.45 l and Est Post Boil Gravity: 1.047 SG

Cool and Prepare Fermentation​

Cool wort to fermentation temperature



Transfer wort to fermenter



Add water to achieve final volume of 20.00 l




Fermentation Ingredients

Amt

Name

Type

#

%/IBU

1.0 pkg

American Ale (Wyeast Labs #1056) [124.21 ml]

Yeast

6

-




Measure Actual Original Gravity _______ (Target: 1.047 SG)



Measure Actual Batch Volume _______ (Target: 20.00 l)

Fermentation



14/11/2013 - Primary Fermentation (10.00 days at 27.0 C ending at 27.0 C)











Dry Hop and Prepare for Bottling/Kegging

Dry Hop/Bottling Ingredients

Amt

Name

Type

#

%/IBU

25.00 g

Galaxy [14.00 %] - Dry Hop 10.0 Days

Hop

7

0.0 IBUs




Measure Final Gravity: _________ (Estimate: 1.011 SG)



Date Bottled/Kegged: 24/11/2013 - Carbonation: Keg with 86.48 KPA



Age beer for 8.00 days at 4.0 C



2/12/2013 - Drink and enjoy!

Notes

Created with BeerSmith​

 

[Engibeer]

Edit:

Pdf attached due to poor formatting in the above post.

Cheers

View attachment Crystal Partial.pdf

 

[carniebrew]

Technically this brew is not a "partial mash", as you're not actually mashing any base grain. What you're making is a "full extract" or "extract with spec grain" brew.

That being said, you should consider holding back some of your LME until the very end of the boil, as your boil gravity is 1.064...try and shoot for something more in the 1.040 range, and you should be able to use less hops in the boil for the same IBU.

I wrote a guide to full extract brewing for AHB earlier this year, maybe it'll help?
http://aussiehomebrewer.com/topic/70529-a-guide-to-extract-with-specialty-grain-brewing/?hl=%2Bguide+%2Bextract

 

[Engibeer]

Cheers Carnie,

What about the 250g crystal to be mashed initially?

Edit:

Sorry, I am currently reading your guide and now understand what you mean when you say "extract with spec grain"

 

[verysupple]

Speaking from experience, stick to proven recipes for the first few brews using a particular method. By "proven recipes" I mean those that have plenty of positive feedback and not just anything published on the net (I learned the hard way). I've never made a truly awful brew but my better ones have been based on proven recipes. Having said that some of my originals were pretty good too, but some were not so great.

I guess it boils down to if you want to experiment with a recipe then expect experimental results (i.e. no guarantee of a good result). If you want some degree of certainty go with a good recipe.

On the method side of things, just do your best to adapt a recipe to your system and method. This is where using proven recipes come in. If you use a proven recipe and it turns out crap, then you probably made some errors. If you use your own recipe and it turns out crap you don't know if it was a crap recipe or a crap method. Proven recipes let you get your method sorted before you get too creative.

However, trying our own recipes before we really know what we are doing is a mistake we've all made. So I don't know why I'm expecting you to listen . So I guess as long as you're having fun and you like your beer, go nuts .

 

[carniebrew]

Cheers Carnie,

What about the 250g crystal to be mashed initially?

Edit:

Sorry, I am currently reading your guide and now understand what you mean when you say "extract with spec grain"

Yeah, you're not actually 'mashing' spec grain, you just need to steep it in hot water, the temperature of the steeping water is a lot less important. To be doing a true 'partial', you need to actually mash some base grain. So normally you'd mash enough grain to give you around a 1.040 boil gravity (say 2.5kg in 15 litres)...then boil that up with your hops, and use extract and top up water at the end of the boil to give you your desired batch size.

 

[Engibeer]

Any recipe suggestions guys?

LHBS was out of cascade and was meant to get a delivery but it didn't arrive before I got there.

I've got Goldings, Galaxy, Hallertauer, American Ale Yeast, 2x Cans of Coopers Amber Liquid Malt Extract.

AA's are as entered in the attached brew sheet.

I've modified the recipe a bit but I'm open to suggestions.

As verysupple has said, maybe it's better for me to go for something proven? (or a bastardisation of considering the ingredients I have available).

I have added the late addition LME function in in Beersmith.

Please see attached for comments...?

I'm checking the recipes section for ideas.

Any further help is of course appreciated.

View attachment Extract_APA.pdf

 

[Engibeer]

I guess i got lucky.

This brew is currently force carbonating and it turned out very very well.

 

[Engibeer]

Tasted great out of the fermenter although I'm becoming more critical.... initial thoughts...

Slightly sweet. Residual unfermentable sugars?

Good nose. Could be a bit more hoppy.

Delicacy of the galaxy is lost with the darkess of the beer, only comes through slightly, not as much as expected.

Bitterness is almost spot on. Goldings may overtake some of the other hops. Benefit of the goldings is they seem to amplify a nice dryness, as recently seen in an All-grain Saison I brewed.

Not many notes of hallertau in the beer, one could not tell that any noble hops are present.

Could definitely benefit from additional dry-hopping.

Force carbonated thisafternoon. Additional comments to follow after the beer matures.

 

[Scottye]

Tasted great out of the fermenter although I'm becoming more critical.... initial thoughts...
Slightly sweet. Residual unfermentable sugars?.....snip

Hey Eng
I noticed with a few of my extract brews that the sweetness from the malt and specialty grains was more dominant than what I experienced when brewing with kits & bits. I put this down to the bittering addition and having the balance a bit messed up. For me, not doing full volume boils, it just meant working out the bittering hop addition. I only got the balance really wrong on one occasion producing a beer that was just too sweet to drink. My last extract using Columbus to bitter was spot on and my first partial using Magnum was more bitter than I had planned but much easier to drink than a sweet beer.

 

[Engibeer]

G'day Von,

I was using the functionality in beersmith2 that calculates IBUs based on additional late extract addition.

I think the bitterness worked reasonably well. Most wouldn't notice the sweetness, particularly if they weren't looking for it.

 

[manticle]

Sweetness will lessen with fermentation as maltose gets consumed by yeast and carbonation will also affect perception